A History of Water
Volume 1: Water Control and River Biographies
Edited by T. Tvedt and E. Jakobsson
Volume 2: The Political Economy of Water
Edited by R. Coopey and T. Tvedt
Volume 3: The World of Water
Edited by T. Tvedt and T. Oestigaard

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress catalog card: available
Acknowledgement
The editors would like to thank the Norwegian Research Council and the University of
Bergen, Norway, for financial contributions.
Production co-ordination by
M & M Publishing Services, 33 Warner Road,
Ware, Herts., SG12 9JL.
Typeset in 11 on 12pt Garamond by FiSH Books, Enfield, Middx.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall

‘Indigenous People Participation’: Conflict in Water Use
in an African Mining Economy
F. A. Akiwumi

5

18
38

49

Part II: Water as a Symbol of Power
5.

Powering the Nation: A Social History of Hydro-electricity
in Ireland
81
M. Maguire

6.

Water as a Symbol of Power: The Hydraulic System of
Gôlkonda, Hyderabad
W. C. Wong and V. Kallianpur

98

Part III: Water as Hierarchy and Structuring Principle
7.

Water, Hindu Mythology and an Unequal Social
Order in India
D. Joshi and B. Fawcett

119

vi

8.

9.

A History of Water

Unity and Abstraction: Ethics and Modernity in
the Riverine Technology of the American New Deal
B. Black
An Evolutionary History of Water Rights in South Africa
D. D. Tewari

137
157

Part IV: The Flow of Water
10.

11.

Early Developments in Groundwater Research in The
Netherlands: A Societally Driven Science
J. J. de Vries
River Works in Famine Ireland
J. C. I. Dooge
SECTION 2: UNDERSTANDING

AND

185
207

CONCEPTUALISING WATER

Part V: Water as Text and Meaning
12.

13.

14.

Rivers as Text: From Pre-modern to Post-modern
Understandings of Development, Technology
and the Environment in Canada and Abroad
J. L. Manore

229

Constructing a Myth of Purity: The Marketing
of Welsh Water
O. Roberts

254

‘Seeing is Believing’: Perceptions of Safe Water
in Rural Yoruba
E.-M. Rinne

269

Part VI: Water in Literature and Art
15.

16.

‘Of Frogs’ Eyes and Cows’ Drinking Water’: Water and
Folklore in Western Kenya
I. Khasandi-Telewa

289

‘The Waterside Dwellers Sleep Thirsting’: Cultural
Interpretations of Water in a Rural Community
F. K. Lukalo

310

17.

The Pastoral, the Monumental and What Lies In-between:
Images of Dams and the Riparian Landscape
323
D. C. Jackson

18.

Water Images in Latin American Cinema: The Films of
Fernando Solanas
J. Askeland and Á. Ramírez

349

Contents

vii

Part VII: Water in Religion and Mythology
19.

A Christian Perspective on Water and Water Rights
A. Armstrong and M. Armstrong

20.

River Cult and Water Management Practices
in Ancient India
Joisea Joseph Kodiyanplakkal

367

385

Part VIII: Rainmaking and Life-giving Waters
21.

22.

23.

24.

Science in the Social Sphere: Weather Modification
and Public Response
S. Matthewman

409

River and Rain: Life-giving Waters in Nepalese
Death Rituals
T. Oestigaard

430

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Wealth of These Nationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: Rain, Rulers and
Religion on the Cuvelai Floodplain
M. McKittrick

449

The Lozi Flood Tradition
C. M. Namafe

470

Contributors

488

Index

491

Introduction
Terje Tvedt and Terje Oestigaard

THE CHALLENGE
Not far from the trendiest restaurants of the Seine’s west bank in
Paris, and to the south of France, one can enter a world where
discussions about secular modernity and postmodernism give way
to the worship of the ‘water of life’ and a belief in miracles. A faith
affirmed by the actions of millions of people every year. The idea
that the worship of water belongs to the past, and to a more ‘primitive’ society, is mistaken: never before in human history have so
many millions of people received holy water, holy baths or received
God by being baptized in water.
Every year from three to five million people visit Lourdes at the foot
of the Pyrenees. No other place in the Christian world, except Rome,
receives so many pilgrims. In this French village with its holy water, in
the shops that surround the basilica, commerce is flourishing. Wherever one looks there are both large and small water bottles
on display. Some are in the shape of the Virgin Mary, others are like
the standard plastic gallon flasks fancied by permanent campers. It is
mildly absurd to observe someone strolling down a bustling street with
a Marlboro cigarette or the evening edition of Le Soir in one hand, and
a little Virgin Mary bottle filled with holy water in the other.
In the square in front of the basilica are thousands of people who
cannot move unaided. Among the motley multinational crowd, who
are driven by their helpers from the holy springs to the holy baths,
it is hard not to be moved. Their concentration during the processions, the communal hymns, or the chanted prayers, seems to infuse
the entire place. One witnesses a manifestation of the power of faith
and prayer, a collective activity practised in aid of the many thousands of people who cling, visibly and intensely, to what might be
their ultimate hope: that the holy water will heal them.
At Lourdes, in the country where modern rationalism celebrated

x

A History of Water

its first victories, water has been resurrected as the ‘water of life’,
both as a religious symbol - as an affirmation of God - and as God’s
medium. People queue up, filling bottles with holy water to take
home, be that Sydney or Zagreb. From the many taps of Lourdes
flows the holiest water in Europe.
People come from all over the world to drink and collect the
water, just like the Hindus, who for thousands of years have carried
water from the Ganges across the Indian subcontinent. Or like the
Muslims, who for hundreds of years have carried water from Mecca
on their pilgrimages across the African savannah to Mali and
Mauritania. Millions believe that this water can work wonders, that
its miraculous properties can heal the sick, cleanse the soul, and
ensure longer life.
Many attempts to summarize the history of human ideas have
presented progress as a linear development, from primitive magic
through modern religion to empirical and experimental science.
According to this model, primitive societies use rituals in a mechanical and instrumental way. Magic developed as a result of primitive
peoples’ lack of ability to distinguish between subjective associations and an objective outer reality. The processions at Lourdes,
however, embody a mixture of these forms. Scientific attempts have
been made to establish the healing capacities of the spring water. At
the same time there is an element of magic involved. Sickness has
been looked upon as a manifestation of evil. Through history there
have been numerous individuals, groups and movements that have
treated illness by non-medicinal means and claimed success.
Pilgrimages to holy sanctuaries and devotion to sacred objects have
frequently played an important part in such healings.
From the earliest times, healing cults have been associated with
water sources. Evidence exists of religious worship at numerous
springs in western Europe, from the Neolithic period and from the
Bronze Age. Thus, when entering the gates of the basilica at
Lourdes in the grotto with all the crutches hanging from the ceiling above the sacred fount, one is perhaps part of an extension and
a renewal of a fundamental tradition of water cults running through
European history?
Turning our attention to Asia, India is the land of water pilgrims
par excellence, not only in terms of tradition but also in scale. Most
of the myriads of holy places lie on the banks of the Ganges or
along one of the numerous other rivers honoured by the Hindus.
The most sacred festival is the Kumbh Mela, which is held
every twelve years in Allahabad, on the confluence of Ganges,
Yamuna and the mythical, subterranean Saraswati River. The Kumbh
Mela is a 42 day pilgrim festival. Although the exact number of

Introduction

xi

people is uncertain, in 2001 it was estimated that between 50 and
70 million people came to this sacred confluence. On 24 January
2001, some 20–25 million people cleansed themselves of committed
sins with holy water from the three rivers. Astrologers had established that this was the best time to bathe in the confluence, and a
holy bath at this time would bring the most fortunate merits. The
2001 Kumbh Mela accounted for the largest congregation of human
beings ever. They had gathered with a single purpose: to bathe in
the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati. The holiness
of the water in these rivers will erase sins and prepare devotees for
death. The water of the joining rivers encapsulates life from the
realms before birth to the cosmic consequences after death.
Varanasi (also known as Benares, or Kashi), one of the oldest
towns in the world with continuous habitation, is India’s most holy
location. It lies on the Ganges where the river swings northward
before resuming its primarily eastward direction of flow. The city
has acquired its status because it is here that the four most important mythical subterranean rivers join the Ganges. It has been said
of Varanasi that all the 330 million Hindu gods live there, and that
this was the place where cosmos itself was created. Whereas all
other places in this world live in a stage of impurity, decay and
destruction, Varanasi has – ever since the primordial creation –
remained in a permanent stage of purity and perfection. The
constant stream of pilgrims arriving at Varanasi emphasizes its
central role in Hinduism, and in Varanasi every day is a day whereby
cosmos is recreated at this very place. The 70,000 temples and the
numerous ascetics only illustrate the holiness of the town. Above all,
Varanasi is a place where the Ganges connects this world with the
divine world. Hence, the most important Hindu gods immerse themselves daily during prescribed periods of the year.
Early in the morning, groups of worshippers emerge from the
narrow streets and descend the steps or ghats into the river. The
sadhus walking from the mouth of the Ganges to its source, and
holy men coming from the temples of the town, draw water according to prescribed rituals. They carry the water back to their temples
in large brass pots. Every drop has the power to wash away sins and
impurities, and to bring health and happiness. Common people and
devotees, half-naked or dressed in flamboyant saris, also carry with
them small ceramic vessels, metal pots or larger buckets filled with
the holy Ganges water.
The Brahmins intone their prayers to the Ganges and the other
sacred rivers: ‘Oh, holy mother Ganges! Oh Yamuna! Oh Godavari!
Saraswati! Oh Narmada! Sindhu! Kaveri! May you all have joy from
being manifest in this water with which I cleanse myself!’ These are

xii

A History of Water

all part of an elaborate system of religious devotions, symbols and
ceremonies. The prayers increase in intensity towards the climax at
these sacred locations, and justify them as part of an all-encompassing social ritual. The Ganges is the river of life and of heaven.
It is the purest of the pure. Those who bathe in the Ganges increase
their chances of entering heaven. To see, drink or touch the Ganges,
or to speak to the deity as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Mother Gangaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, removes all sin.
In the afternoon, as the sun begins to set over the arid plains
beyond the Ganges, one is likely to meet numerous funeral processions in the narrow streets of Varanasi. All are on their way to the
river, carrying the dead dressed in colourful clothes. They are heading for the ghats of Manikarnika and Harishchandra, where funeral
pyres burn continuously. Varanasi can be described as an enormous
cremation ground, watched over by the god Shiva. According to
myth, Shiva cremated his wife Parvati at Manikarnika ghat. The original cremation fire from this pyre has been burning ever since. It is
believed that if the cremation fires are extinguished and the cremations cease, the world will collapse and a new world order arise.
Some 40,000 corpses are burnt annually. Cremations at the electrical crematorium at Harishchandra have increased tenfold in recent
years but the preferred method is cremation on open pyres. Down
by the ghats lie huge stacks of grey firewood waiting for the dead.
The sound of logs being chopped disturbs the solemn atmosphere.
Above the ghats the eternal flame that Shiva cremated Parvati with
is still burning, and this primordial fire is used to ignite the pyres.
The ritual follows an ancient ceremony. The family carries the
stretcher bearing the dead person down to the river, lowers it into
the water, opens the mouth of the deceased and pours water from
the Ganges into it. With the family watching, the corpse is laid on
the pyre, which one of the sons of the deceased then ignites, at the
foot-end if it is a woman, at the head-end if a man. When the flames
have consumed the corpse, the ashes are scattered into the river.
The Hindus believe that everybody cremated here can achieve
moksa, and finally be released from the eternal cycle of reincarnation. Once the ashes have been immersed in the Ganges, the divine
river will carry the soul to heaven. Hindus come here with their
families from all over India to improve their karma and attain eternal life in heaven.
To stand on the grey stone steps, with the golden rays of sunset
over the Ganges plain, and to watch the pilgrims, yogis, ascetics and
the officiating priests, all deeply involved in their rituals; to smell the
smoke drifting from the pyres and see the Indian youths playing
cricket nearby: all this gives a glimpse of the importance of water in
society and religion. For the initiated, the Ganges represents a kind

Introduction

xiii

of sacred, mythical geography, very real and deeply ontological.
Physical geography describes the Ganges in terms of length and
volume. It tells us that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flow is determined by the melting of snow
in the Himalayas and by the monsoons. Profane descriptions present
quantitative hard facts. The river crosses the Ganges plains, which are
threatened by drought during much of the year. The river is highly
polluted with chemicals and sewage. It has its source in the Himalayas
on the Indian side of the border of Tibet. These empirical descriptions
of the Ganges and of other sacred Indian rivers leave out the more
complex structure perceived and comprehended by devoted Hindus.
For many Hindus the Varanasi that one sees is merely a shadow, a kind
of symbol or expression of the genuine but invisible Varanasi situated
on the banks of a river, which flows in heaven.
The worlds of water include such religious and cosmological
realms but are not limited to these spheres alone. Water does not
merely bridge the profane and sacred realms: it transcends these
categories and thereby opens up wider understandings of the
cultural and the natural world. An example: Mark Twain once made
the comment that whisky is for drinking and water is for fighting
over. Pessimistic analyses suggest that wars in this century may be
fought over water. These matters and controversies in themselves
are not the matter for discussion here. However, the ideological
responses to the new roles that water is assumed to take on in society are of importance in an analysis of ideas about water. The ways
in which water is perceived in a society, structure both the organization of that society and future practices related to water. Thus,
water by its very nature dissolves the traditional boundaries in
Western cultures between science and religion, facts and beliefs, the
sacred and the profane, and questions the scientific method and
approaches by which we seek to analyse the world.
THEORIES
A knowledge of how people have conceived water throughout history
helps us to understand the impact of human activity on the worlds of
water and, indeed, to comprehend how water has influenced human
activity. The fundamental and dual character of water being both
culture and nature, and being both essential to life yet also a taker of
life through water-borne disease and flooding, meant that people in all
societies attached a significance and a complex web of meaning to
water that is unmatched by any other element of nature. From everyday activities to religious ceremonies and festivals all over the world,
water has always been interwoven in social interaction.

xiv

A History of Water

Water is both a natural and a social reality, which challenges traditional understandings in both the natural and social sciences. In
nature and society water is not a single phenomenon but has many
manifestations and meanings. This volume aims to highlight how
water has been understood, conceived and socially constructed. It
investigates in what ways, how and to what extent, people have
understood, conceptualized, and used different types of water as a
social, cultural and religious medium.
Peoples’ relation to water has been dependent upon many factors.
One aim of this volume is to emphasize how ideas and cultural
traditions are seen as ‘arising from water’ and have been affected by
particular water contexts. It is partly this dual character of water as
external, as nature, on the one hand, and as internal, as a social
good that we need in order to live, and of which we largely consist
(60–80 per cent of the human body is water), on the other hand,
which gives water a special role in social and cultural constructions
of the material world.
The analytical approach of this volume is therefore at odds with
the ‘constructionist’ (sometimes called ‘constructivist’) approach,
while at the same distancing itself from the ‘realist’ disregard for the
history and role of constructivist practices. The debate between the
two positions has been sterile, although the dichotomy remains
powerfully active as a divisive force within social science research
on man-nature relationships.
In Contested Natures, Macnaghten and Urry define ‘realism’, and
criticize the doctrine in this way:
Realism is ‘… the claim that the environment is essentially a ‘real
entity’, which, in and of itself and substantially separate from social
practices and human experience, has the power to produce unambiguous, observable and rectifiable outcomes.’ 1
[…] ‘… we argued against the doctrine of environmental realism, in
particular claiming that the ‘environment’ does not simply exist
out there but had to be in a sense ‘invented’. There is no simple linear
process which would inevitably culminate in contemporary environmentalism.’2

Whilst on the one hand our approach to understanding peoplewater relations disagrees with the approach of the constructivists,
neither does it fit in with the representation of their opponents. The
‘water environment’ does not have the power to produce ‘outcomes’
separate from ‘social practices’, whether ‘rectifiable’, ‘observable’ or
not. When constructionists say that there is no such thing as the
environment – that it has to be ‘invented’ or that ‘nature no longer

Introduction

xv

exists’ – they have denied the relevance of the physical reality of
nature, and of water. This approach is not able to focus on the relationship between different worlds of water or forms of water and
how this has affected social and cultural constructions of water.
Terms like ‘nature’ and ‘water’ belong to complex networks of
cultural meanings, which change through time, and they may not be
shared across cultural boundaries. Therefore, such terms have been,
and are, inherently contestable.
Water and water processes are independent realities and have
causal powers both on other natural processes and on societies,
social structures and institutions, etc., but to acknowledge this reality makes it even more interesting and important to recognize the
role not only of cultural processes (which would be the argument of
the contextual constructivists) but also of physical processes in shaping the way those realities are experienced, understood, framed,
contested, and so on. It is of paramount importance to study these
cultural, discursive processes, whilst not denying the reality of physical or social processes that are also culturally ‘constructed’ in their
various ways. This volume tries to overcome that tradition within the
social sciences that suspends any interest in whether the objective
circumstances of a physical fact merit the existence of a social problem or not. We ask what have been the effective causes of social
phenomena and what has kept religious activities going; but we do
not limit our interests to social variables alone: we include physical
properties (in this case the concrete water landscapes in which this
social activity takes place).
The volume aims to show how culture and nature can be seen as
inseparable but still different, as opposing poles, a paradox illuminated by analysing people-water relations from different places and
at different times.
Water is in flux, constantly changing form, and it always has the
same fundamental properties. Whatever form it takes in the hydrological cycle – in the sea, in rivers or in the atmosphere as rain – or
whether it is used for drinking, cooking, flushing toilets or as art in
fountains, it is always the same H2O. The natural character of water
is essentially the same everywhere but its role and form always vary
from place to place and time to time. This ever-changing quality of
water is a universal: it is common to all people through history. The
character of being always the same but still different provides water
studies with a unique potential for comparing human societies
cross-culturally, regardless of time period or social complexity.
The ‘worlds of water’ are the numerous life-worlds and webs of
significance people have spun around water as natural phenomena.
Reflecting the many aspects of human life expressed through water

xvi

A History of Water

symbolism and the rich ocean of metaphors, this volume focuses on
three main areas of these worlds of water: (a) water as a medium
for control and the creation of social hierarchies; (b) water as a
medium for understanding and cultural elaboration; and (c) water as
a medium for religious and divine interaction.
These spheres are not mutually exclusive but interact and overlap. Analytically, however, they can be seen as separate domains,
where the roles of water in history can be studied.
CONTENTS
Section 1 explores water as a medium for control and the creation of
social hierarchies. Controlling nature is a process by which people
and societies conquer material restrictions. Since humans need water,
control over this life-giving resource is of utmost importance. Those
who control water control people and wealth: water is power.
The chapters in this volume highlight these processes through
case studies from a wide range of countries in different historical
settings. The studies emphasize how ideas about water and its role
have changed throughout history, and how legitimating processes
and the struggle for control of water should be contextually understood. Donald Worster discusses theoretical aspects of water in the
age of imperialism and beyond, in a global perspective. Approaching the topic from another direction, David Gordon analyses how
the water tenure system in the Luapula valley of central Africa
changed from being regarded as a sacred ownership to a colonial
commons subjected to an array of regulations. Kate A. Berry focuses
on how narratives of water control and usage in Hawaii have
changed over time and how water conflicts have been linked to
different ideas about water distribution and rights. Fenda A.
Akiwumi continues with an account of conflicts in water use in an
African mining economy in Sierra Leone. The mining industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s need
for water, and its ideas of how it could be procured and by which
means, were dramatically different from those of the local people,
who lived and worked within a traditional agricultural perspective.
Within all communities those in power must be able to demonstrate and justify their power vis-Ă -vis the rest of the population.
Visualization of power has often proved to be both an effective and
dominant way of creating hierarchies: dams, hydroelectricity and
hydraulic systems have therefore not been mere technological
constructions but also monumental symbols intended to express
power, vigour and domination. The various mechanisms by which
water has been controlled and manipulated should therefore be

Introduction

xvii

regarded as a means of constructing social hierarchies.
The symbolic importance of such technological constructions lies
in their representation of power and dominance, creating notions of
superiority and inferiority. Mark Maguire discusses how Ireland was
powered by hydroelectricity from 1923 to 1960, and that it should
be understood not only as a means to increase electric output but
also as a means to increase symbolical capital and manifestations of
governmental power. Wong Y. Chii and V. Kallianpur illuminate
water as a symbol of power in a historical perspective by focusing
on the hydraulic system of Golkonda in Hyderabad (1512-1687 AD)
in India, and show how this impacted on society.
Water creates hierarchies, and it works as a structuring principle,
which D. D. Tewari emphasizes in an analysis of the evolution of
water rights in South Africa. Changes in water rights have been interwoven into the nation’s political and economic history and may
function as a mirror of other rights. Brian Black focuses on the role
of water in the ethics, modernity and technology of the American
New Deal. Behind technical landscapes were environmental planning and ethics, making the sciences of ecology and anthropology an
intrinsic part of studies of modernism and technological landscapes.
The emphasis on water as a medium for control and social hierarchy involves both macro and micro levels. At an individual level,
water is a highly efficacious means by which it is possible to create,
express or transcend hierarchies. The caste system is a social organization primarily based upon transactions of water and food. Pure
people cannot receive water from impure people. Water and people
are one – they are indistinguishable – water has attained a moral and
spiritual quality. The fluid character of water enables constructions,
which equalize humans with their exteriors. A sinful or polluted
person transfers his or her qualities to the water in both positive and
negative ways. Hence, it is possible to cleanse oneself but also to
pollute others by water. Deepa Joshi and Ben Fawcett illuminate
these problems of unequal social order in India through a water
perspective. Although the caste system as a social principle is abolished in theory and by law, actual social practices communicated
and differentiated by the use of water are long lasting and difficult
to change.
Jacobus J. de Vries shows how scientific groundwater hydrology in
the Netherlands developed in close association with water management problems. Water management has always been an integral part
of life in the Netherlands. A major part of the reclaimed land is manmade – by drainage of marsh land, disposal of surplus water and the
perpetual struggle against encroaching seawater and floods. Thus,
varying man-water situations stimulated the development of a

xviii

A History of Water

particular hydrological research. Too much water or the wrong water
is as dangerous as too little water, and it becomes a societal problem
that involves engineering, geographical, historical, and social and
political issues. In the Irish famine of the nineteenth century, J. C. I.
Dooge discusses how drainage and river works influenced society
and reduced poverty in times of crises, as impediment to land
drainage for agricultural purposes provided more secure crops.
Section 2 explores water as a medium for understanding and
cultural elaboration. This entails two approaches. On the one hand,
understandings and conceptualizations of water as a cultural and
social medium are intrinsic to every society. On the other hand,
water in itself is used to express meaning and to define social relations and cultural aspects. By illuminating and demonstrating how
people and societies define water and how water defines understandings of humans and social institutions, Section 2 aims to
emphasize some of the dialectical roles water plays in the constitution and conceptualization of society and the world.
The pervasive role of water in society as a structuring principle
stresses how and why water is such an efficacious metaphor and
symbol when people describe and communicate the world they live
in to themselves and to the outer world. Water has been, and is,
important for everyone, but the elaboration and the explicit meanings are cultural constructions, constantly re-negotiated in a natural
and social environment. Water is used to express meaning and can
therefore be seen and analysed as text. In many cases the use of
water metaphors is a more sensitive, visual and forceful way of arguing than the use of other metaphors. The conceptualization of water
is often emphasized and elaborated extensively in literature, art and
film. Poets and novelists use water as a framework for interpreting,
grasping and explicating ambiguity within their own culture and
society. Especially in local lore, water images and understandings of
the world through water play a fundamental role, partly because
water is intimately interwoven with religion and ritual.
The understanding and conceptualization of water, therefore, take
numerous forms, which necessitates contextual case studies of these
world views. Jean Manore analyses rivers as texts and he investigates the change from pre-modern to postmodern understandings of
development, technology and the environment in Canada and
abroad. Essential in peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perceptions of water is their conceptualization of safe and pure water. Owen Roberts discusses how the
myth of purity was constructed regarding the marketing of Welsh
water from 1750â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000. In contrast, Eva M. Rinne analyses the
perceptions of safe water in rural Yoruba communities in Nigeria.
These approaches to the meanings of water and to water as

Introduction

xix

meaning, help to highlight the pervasive roles of water in society.
But water also has other potentials. The wide range of nuances and
the numerous facets of which water is the essential and integral part,
give authors and poets a rich base from which metaphors,
metonymies and reveries express social matters or aspects of life.
The diversity of qualities creates the material and constructions by
which it is possible to express social relations and problems.
Stagnant water is silent but flowing rivers are like thunder; water
may represent death or life. Through the use of water metaphors it
is possible to express human processes and political criticism in efficacious but subtle ways, since human lives have many aspects
which have their parallels in the properties of water.
V. I. Khasandi-Telewa analyses water in the life of the Kabras of
western Kenya as it is portrayed in their folklore. Fibian K. Lukalo
focuses on cultural interpretations of water in a rural community.
Water images are an integral part of most perceptions and conceptualizations of the world, regardless of where and when. Donald C.
Jackson emphasizes images of dams and the riparian landscape in
an analysis of the pastoral, the monumental and what lies in
between in the USA. Finally, Jon Askeland and Alvaro Ramirez show
how and why water images have had a crucial role in Latin
American cinema, with special emphasis on Fernando Solanas.
The final two parts of the volume explore water as a medium of
religious and divine interaction. On the one hand, water is life and
represents the future but, on the other hand, water is also death.
This dichotomy enables unique ontological expressions, and the
symbolism of water often implies both death and rebirth. In baptism
the initiates symbolically die in the water by immersion and arise
from it as reborn in the kingdom of God. Rivers are commonly used
to symbolize the crossing-point between the living and the dead.
Violent waters are attributed with destructive and negative capacities
whereas life-giving waters are the essence of humanity and further
life. Water is essential to all life. In its various stages, water symbolizes the whole of human life from the womb to the tomb. We are
born from water, and water in its original form is procreative.
Metaphors of creation and cosmogony get their strength and rationale in aquatic symbols because water is a pro-creative force and
the essence of all kinds of life.
The religious and cultural uses of water, which express essential
truths of humanity and the relation between people and gods, differ
within world religions, traditional folklores and tribal religions. In
any study of water in religion it is crucial, therefore, to conceptualize the different variables and types of water which people give
importance to in their daily life. Water images and metaphors in

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A History of Water

worship depend upon, but are not restricted to, the physical environment that people inhabit and cultivate. The physical environment
is often a holy and cosmological landscape invested with divine
meanings, and the profane and economic spheres are interwoven
with the sacred and religious spheres. Peoplesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; world views of themselves and their gods can be analysed as a product of this relation
between nature, society and water.
The chapters dealing with the religious role of water show how
and why people with different world views use holy water in devotional worship. Different types of water are associated with various
attributes, behaviour, and genders. Rain, rivers, ponds, lakes, hailstorms, snow and glaciers are some of the forms water may take.
These phenomena of nature are incorporated and interpreted into
cultural and religious contexts and spheres. Water nourishes life and
rain fertilizes fields. In the erotic symbolism of the primordial
creation the sky embraces and fertilizes the earth with rain. Gods
and goddesses may also take abode in, embody, or materialize
themselves in water rather than in a statue or a temple. Thus, the
water in itself might be a divinity. Divine water is neither neutral nor
passive: it entails powers and capacities to transform this world,
annihilate sins and create holiness. Water carries away sin and pollution, and it purifies both physically and symbolically. Depending
upon the religion (and apart from being a god or goddess in itself),
water may also be seen as a living and spiritual substance working
and mediating between humans and gods or the divine realms.
Good water is praised and bad water is banned. The procurement
and control of water is not only a realm for humans but also a divine
project. In many religions, cosmos is created from water.
Cosmogony, the continuous re-creation of cosmos, gods and
humans, is dependent upon water. The gods create, maintain and
guarantee human life and prosperity by the presence of sufficient
and good water on earth. This intimate relation between gods and
humans is seen in rainmaking rituals. Humans are dependent upon
water, and if seasonal rain does not come when it should, the gods
are invoked to modify nature for the creation of life-giving water.
Turning absence into presence is an enterprise that necessitates all
cosmic forces. Rainmaking rituals are rites in which humans sacrifice
to the gods for the return of water in order to secure a good harvest
and further life. The almighty and supreme powers of the gods are
expressed by the divine control of water, which guarantees peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
well-being and their life and death by presence or absence of water.
Water rights are often seen as given and legitimated by religion
and gods. Adrian Armstrong and Margaret Armstrong discuss water
and water rights within Christianity, the biblical references to water

Introduction

xxi

and the consequences for Western European countries, whereas
Joisea Joseph Kodiyanplakkal highlights river cults and management
practices in ancient India.
Everything good and pro-creative has commonly been seen as
holy. Clear and fresh water is good and has therefore been regarded
(and still is regarded) as a divine or a godly gift, since water from
rivers and rain gives fertile fields and prosperity for mankind. Impure
water has been conceived as dangerous, whether due to ritual pollution or physical contamination. Holy water has throughout history
been seen as a force that cleanses the devotee of sin, whether a
Hindu pilgrim at a sacred river, a Christian devotee in baptism, or a
Muslim at his daily ablution. The rituals might differ but the essence
is fundamentally the same. Water carries away both physical and
symbolic impurity. The transformative character whereby sin and
pollution are cleansed is a process which includes cosmos and divine
realms. Therefore water as a working agent is often worshipped as a
god or goddess because it possesses divine capabilities.
Water is a universal medium inscribed with human character,
conceived as a social matter and a spiritual substance. Simultaneously it belongs to the realm of nature as a changing substance,
passing from solid matter to liquid and finally to gas. The water in
the ocean evaporates into the air and rains over a distant place; it
flows via the river into the fields and becomes cultivated, and the
chain is endlessly and continuously repeated. The same water
divides into different waters, but it will always return to its original
form. The hydrological cycle in nature is paralleled by the endless
social cycle of water, and both cycles have helped to produce
powerful cultural and religious constructions.
Human attempts to modify the weather are not solely a religious
task, and even technical and scientific views on water have led to
ambitious experiments aiming to change rainfall patterns in Western
countries. Steve Matthewman shows how weather modification and
rainmaking experiments were a part of the natural sciences in USA
in the twentieth century. In Nepal, Terje Oestigaard illuminates how
death rituals are an integral part of the hydrological cycle, where the
aim is to create life-giving waters for descendants and future society. Water culture, and particularly religious beliefs surrounding
water, were crucial in the construction of political authority in the
pre-colonial period. Meredith McKittrick puts emphasis on rain,
rulers and religion in the Cuvelai floodplain as the driving forces
which create wealth of nations. Finally, Charles M. Namafe emphasizes the Lozi flood tradition in Zimbabwe, showing how and why
this tradition has created and structured the Lozi peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity as
a group in numerous ways.

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A History of Water

This volume is an attempt to present the complex picture of how
water has been conceptualized as a medium for control and social
hierarchy, for understanding and cultural elaboration, and for religious and divine interaction, all interdependent spheres, each
necessitating the other. Water is both nature and culture, and its
profound character makes the substance unique in the context of
social construction, having epistemological and ontological consequences for both the social and natural sciences. The chapters aim
to convey the idea that with water as a point of departure it is possible to re-work dominant conceptual legacies about nature and
society and ‘realism’ and ‘constructivism’, and to overcome the
nature-society dualism in traditional analyses. Humans live in worlds
of water: water is used to define human life-worlds and the worlds
are sustained through water.
NOTES
1. Macnaghten, P. and Urry, J. (1998), Contested Natures (London: Sage),
p. 1.
2. Op. cit., p.32.